Being As An Ocean, Vanna, et lowheaven

With a name lifted from a Mahatma Gandhi quote, Being As An Ocean came together in late 2010 with their first demos being posted to their Myspace page by early January of the following year. Initially, lead guitarist Tyler Ross was the sole creative force of the band, writing the entirety of their first record only a couple of months after the band was formed. The band spent the rest of 2011 performing anywhere that would have them and scored a record deal with InVogue records near the end of the year, with “Dear G-d” being released precisely 364 days after their first demos were put online, on the third of January 2012. The album received a huge amount of acclaim from both fans and critics, leading to their first world tour in the summer supporting a number of different hardcore bands.

Unfortunately, that touring schedule was too much for founding members Jacob Prest and Shad Hamawe, who left in 2013. But even by then this was a band with far too much momentum to be stopped that easily, and with two new members joining up the same year, the band are still going on to this day. With a second album released in the form of 2014’s “How We Both Wondrously Perish”, the band remain a tremendously exciting prospect both live and in the studio. For that, Being As An Ocean come highly recommended.

Vanna wasted no time, following their formation in recording their debut EP, “This Will Be Our Little Secret”. It solidified the band’s local following, and found itself in the hands of an A&R at Epitaph Records. As of November 15th 2005, the band signed to Epitaph Records. Their first release under Epitaph came in the form of an EP “The Search Party Never Came”, released on June 6th 2006, following the release, the band toured until winter, which is when the band headed into the studio in Seattle, Washington to record their debut full-length album. They named it “Curses” and it was released on April 24th 2007. The band embarked on the routine of touring, promoting as they travel around the country and then re-enter the studio for their following full-length album, “A New Hope”. It was released on March 24th 2009, and it reached number 31 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. They lead with the promotion of the album with a track called “Safe To Say” which they made a music video for. Following a summer tour with A Static Lullaby, the band parted ways with Epitaph, and signed to Artery Recordings in August 2010.

They returned to recording EPs, and released one entitled “The Honest Hearts”. It was released on October 12th 2010, whilst the band settled into the new refuge that is Artery Recordings. They announced at the beginning of January that they would go to Glow in the Dark Studios to record a brand new album called “And They Came Baring Bones”. The band turned the album around very quickly, releasing it on June 21st 2011. Due to turmoil between members, and a couple of line-up changes, the next year became a tricky one, but reinvented themselves slightly with the album “The Few and the Far Between” which was released on March 19th 2013.